From: Marge Loch-Wouters <lochwout>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 1995 08:51:44 -0600

If I can pick up the thread for a bit on Alyce's point of view and the thoughts on how one or multi-dimensional the characters are in Midwife's Apprentice...

It seemed at first to me that the characters were somewhat stereotyped. But I began to see that they were all revealed through the eyes of Alyce, a very neglected and uneducated young woman, who seems to have spent great chunks of her childhood living hand-to-mouth. Intimacy, time spent with people were not things that she had. So her point of view would be necessarily circumscribed by her lack of closeness to anyone and her reactions to people would be predicated on the assumption that she would be rejected or shooed away.

Because she has no expectations of good treatment, she accepts any treatment. And she has no reason to expect that there is more than one dimension in others until she begins to live closely with Jane and the one village and then at the inn. As she matures, she begins to see that all is not as simple and straightforward (including people, midwifery, cats and her relationship with Edward) as she first thinks.

I found that same "revealing" that K.T. talks about coming out throughout the book. The characters are reflected through Alyce's eyes and as she matures so do her perceptions of those around her. I found her maturation believable and that the steps that Cushman has her take a real progression that her name changes so aptly symbolize.

Marge Loch-Wouters lochwout at athenet.net Menasha's Public Library lochwouters at winnefox.org Menasha WI 54952 414 751Q65
Received on Fri 03 Nov 1995 08:51:44 AM CST